Lazy Sunday Afternoon

James enjoyed a quiet Sunday afternoon laughing and playing while I folded laundry (glamorous!), Jason tended to the yard and Anna took a 3 hour (!!) nap. He's such a happy little guy!

Happy Birthday, Jason!

5 Months and Rolling...

Well, the days keep flying by and unbelievably James is five months old.  The last month was a big one for James — he started rolling over, eating solids, and really interacting with the world around him. 

One thing we've learned about this little guy is that he likes to move.  When he rolls over he scoots around on his tummy and has become adept at getting to toys out of his reach.  And, inching around the perimeter of his crib.  Since he mastered rolling from back to tummy, he's become adept at scooching around the entire crib to explore, often at the expense of his sleep.

James also is reluctant to to sit still.  So, when you hold him you have to bounce, rock and sway to keep up with his actvity.  He likes to stand holding onto tables and toys and loves to play in his exersaucer.  A new favorite is the old fashioned "Johnny Jump Up" that allows him to bounce on his own.  All of this activity makes me think James will be an early walker...only time will tell if we'll need to batten down the hatches sooner rather than later.

Regardless of the activity James has a heart-melting, sweet smile on his face 99.9% of the time - which I've now managed to catch several times in pictures.  Who doesn't want to eat this boy up??

Showing some Red Sox love

Baths are still a favorite

Strong boy

Rolling over (the ominous shadow at the end is Tope)

Giggles

Farmer Anna

Anna's favorite TV show for the last several months has been Curious George.  While Jason and I have had more than our fill of the show, it is rare for Anna to agree to watch something different - she just LOVES that monkey and his hijinks.  Even if we think George is annoying and that the Man with the Yellow Hat is just plain weird, the episodes do focus on problem solving, math and science skills.  So, TV is good, right?!?

Anna often wants to perform the activities George does (one might say she's curious) - from requesting a tape measure to measure things around the house (according to Anna everything in our house is "9 pounds 2 inches big") to creating a paper mâché piñata (haven't tried that one yet) to looking for earthworms to have a worm race (yuck!).  On a recent episode George planted a garden and she started asking so many questions about what happens to seeds when you plant them that I decided to let her see for herself.  After a 15 minute search in the garage and kitchen we dug up some old pots, a half-used bag of potting soil, and seeds from a tomato, bell pepper and cucumber.  And then the little gardner got to work.

Of course after the seeds were planted, Anna expected leaves to start shooting up from the dirt.  Turns out planting items is a good test of a three-year-old's patience.  After 3 days of no noticeable movement in the pots, I feared the seeds we plucked from the veggies in the fridge were goners.  Then it occurred to me to plant beans (DUH!) so we added one more plant to the mix.

Lo and behold, on day 4, the tomato plant sprouted, the beans on day 5, and the pepper on day 6.  Sadly, the cucumber did not make it.  Anna tends to her "garden" daily and loves to show the plants to visitors.  In this case I think that Curious Monkey paid off.

Photos of the plants by the farmer herself: